Redclaw

• utilidadIt is one of the most widely farmed crayfish in the world, for its fast growth and its tolerance of different water conditions.
• The male's red patch, which gives it the trade name redclaw, is a soft membrane on the edge of the claw and appears only in adults.
• Escapes from farms have produced feral populations in the Americas, Africa and Asia, where it competes with native crayfish and can pass diseases on to them.
• Unlike other crayfish it does not dig deep burrows, which makes it easier to farm in ponds.
• It is called redclaw after the bright red patch on the male's claw, which is a secondary sexual character and does not appear in females.
• It is farmed in more than twenty countries for its fast growth, its hardiness and its ease of handling, and that aquaculture expansion is exactly what has turned it into an invader.
• It is established outside its range in Mexico, South Africa, Singapore, Puerto Rico, Israel and Jamaica, among others, almost always from farm escapes.
• It can carry aphanomycosis, the crayfish plague, which makes it a potential threat to European crayfish should it become established.
• In Spain its keeping and trade are banned under the catalogue of invasive alien species, precisely because of that risk.
• Unlike other crayfish, it does not dig deep burrows and prefers to shelter among rocks and vegetation.

Skeleton type

Invertebrate - chitin exoskeleton (crustacean)

Habitat & environment

Tropical rivers, ponds and reservoirs of northern Australia and New Guinea

Sources consulted: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherax_quadricarinatus